For all of the film's narrative intricacies, it's love in bloom that carries the day.
Comment
11/09/06
Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
72
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:165
Fresh:119
Rotten:46
Average Rating:6.8/10
Consensus: A fun, whimsical tale about about an office drone trying to save his life from his narrator. The cast obviously is having a blast with the script, but Stranger Than Fiction's tidy lessons make this metaphysical movie feel like Charlie Kaufman-lite.
Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins
Genre: Comedies
US Box Office: $40,137,776
Synopsis: One morning, a seemingly average and generally solitary IRS agent named Harold Crick begins to hear a female voice narrating his every action, thought and feeling in alarmingly precise detail.... [More]
Starring: Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman
Director: Marc Forster
Reviews for Stranger Than Fiction
121 - 140 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Top CriticThis is a genuine marvel of a movie.
11/09/06
The picture is an overworked trifle: There's so much going on in it that it becomes hard to care about anything that's going on in it.
11/09/06
Most of the movie's comedy falls very flat. Another director might have masked the inadequacy of the script in a way to make the enterprise marginally fun, but [Marc] Forster just didn't have the goofy flair required.
11/09/06
It manages to be smart and surprising and provides this season of serious movies with a much-needed shot of whimsy.
11/09/06
Top CriticA movie that begins with a challenging premise but ultimately settles for a more accessible "carpe diem" kind of message.
11/09/06
Yes, Stranger Than Fiction is a head trip. But it's a very friendly one, and well crafted at that.
11/09/06
Stranger Than Fiction is no Eternal Sunshine. But if you can look past its clunky attempt to be exactly that, there's great pleasure in watching Ferrell, like Harold, turn into someone you never knew he could be.
11/09/06
The blending of the intellectual and the emotional that Stranger Than Fiction achieves is so rare, and so rarely done this well. So few films are so fully satisfying on every level like this one is.
11/09/06
It's not the original story we signed up for -- or thought we did.
11/09/06
Top CriticStranger Than Fiction is a movie that brims over with characters who are too complicated, prickly and interesting to fit within the boundaries of a conventional film.
11/09/06
If you've really paid attention to Ferrell's career, this role is not a stretch. He brings great humanity to a character, and a movie, that ends up being more of a sentimental romance than the silly quirk-fest you might expect.
11/09/06
Sometimes I think movies like Stranger Than Fiction don't experiment with narrative and character as much as cop out on them.
11/09/06
There's no joy in seeing Ferrell play an office drone, and the life lessons he learns are of the "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" variety.
11/09/06
Movies with terrific ideas are a rare commodity in Hollywood. The idea behind Stranger Than Fiction is the kind of Charlie Kaufmanesque conceit that sounds a lot better than the way it's played out.
11/09/06
Stranger Than Fiction is the most original comedy of the year, a mind-bending tale with one foot in the real world and the other in pure fiction.
11/09/06
A good movie but not a great one, Stranger Than Fiction is reminiscent of the films of Charlie Kaufman.
11/09/06
A darkly whimsical dramedy that manages to walk the line between mainstream and unconventional.
11/09/06
its brand of dry humor may catch Ferrell fans off-guard... much closer to Jim Carrey's 'The Truman Show' or Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep's 'Adaptation' than it is to the usual Ferrell fare.
11/09/06
[Stranger Than Fiction] springs to life whenever it drops the cute Pirandello-like premise and focuses on the simple business of Ferrell finding love.
11/09/06
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